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We thank our donors for their commitment to the Omohundro Institute’s mission and programs. The Institute depends on the generosity of its supporters. Annual contributions from members of the Associates and gifts directed to support specific projects enable the Institute to stimulate interest in the earliest period of American history and disseminate historical knowledge through the publication of books and the William and Mary Quarterly.

From July 1, 2007–June 30, 2008, 1,147 individuals joined the Associates, including 167 new members and 980 renewing members, and made gifts totaling $130,348. This represents a 3 percent increase in the number of Associates and a 5 percent increase in gifts received compared to the previous fiscal year. The Institute is especially pleased that 73 graduate students joined 71 of their colleagues as Associates, bringing the total of this important cohort to 144. The Institute is deeply grateful to all of you who generously affirmed your interest and support by becoming Associates this year. Associates’ contributions account for nearly 10 percent of the Institute’s budget and build upon the support provided by the Institute’s two permanent sponsors—the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg.

The conference in Ghana, on August 8–12, 2007—“‘The bloody Writing is for ever torn’: Domestic and International Consequences of the First Governmental Efforts to Abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade”—inspired the creation of a workshop titled “Africa, Europe, and the Americas, 1500–1700,” which will take place in Accra, Ghana, on July 12–26, 2009. Spaces have been reserved for twelve scholars based in sub-Saharan Africa and eight located in other parts of the world. The purpose of the workshop is to expand and deepen the connections among scholars from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Americas begun at the Omohundro Institute conference in August 2007 at Accra and Elmina.

In early 2008, the Institute began seeking the funds needed to support the costs associated with the workshop, including the expense of round-trip travel from the participants’ home institutions to Accra, accommodations, and meals. The Omohundro Institute is partnering on the workshop with the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions, and Economic Enterprise in Ghana. Commitments of $50,000 each from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation led the way in private support for the workshop along with the sponsorship of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions, and Economic Enterprise in Ghana, and contributions from a number of individual donors.

The Colonial Dames of America renewed its $5,000 annual gift to fund the Institute’s Fellowship in Historical Editing for 2008. Gifts from the Colonial Dames have supported the fellowship program since 1996. A gift of $3,000 from the College of William and Mary’s Christopher Wren Association funded a second Fellowship in Historical Editing in 2008. This gift was the Wren Association’s second in support of the editing fellowship. A first-time gift of $2,000 from the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry (OAAA) provided two $1,000 OAAA Grace DeuPree Fellowships in 2008. The Fellowship in Historical Editing program offers talented history graduate students the opportunity to build upon the skills acquired as Institute editorial apprentices during the academic year. The fellowships support continued editorial work throughout the summer following the apprenticeship and make a significant contribution to the Institute’s ability to maintain the high standards for which all of its publications are known.

In May 2008, The Law Papers of St. George Tucker received a second two-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which again designated the Tucker Law Papers a “We the People” project. The NEH grant will provide $100,000 in outright funds and $35,000 in matching funds for the final two years of the project. During the 2008–2009 fiscal year, the Institute will work to raise the matching funds required by the terms of the NEH grant.

Shawn A. Holl
Director of Development